The Manx Radio Outside Broadcasting Unit outside the Main Stage as Saturday
Night goes out
live on Manx Radio

Tim Hain & Worx? Well,
Tim and Worx
had been on the phone all afternoon giving us ever more frustrating updates of
their delay in London. We had Manx Radio's Outside Broadcast Production Team
standing by, a sold-out evening and the clock ticking ever closer to kick-off.
Eventually we had to face it, Tim was irretrievably
stranded on an aircraft that wouldn't er start...or something like that. What
to do??? Who would step into the void at the 11th hour and the 59th minute?
Panic stations all 'round. With the kick-off for the evening session drawing
ever closer and with time passing rapidly, we scratched our heads, made a few
calls, ran roound in circles and eventually tracked down
Molly Brown
who were sound checking at The Bridge Inn. Would they? Could they? Pleeeeeease.
"Yes" they said "of course we''ll do it, whatever you want, just point us in
the right direction". We should have known; Molly Brown are good people, the
best. Phew, blood pressure back to somewhere near normal - yeah, right...

Kelly of Molly Brown gives it everything at this year's Festival - click to
enlarge

So at 8.30pm on the dot Kelly, Paddy, Mark and Kel jumped into the void left by
Tim's absence
and performed a beautifully crafted set that had the Main Stage Audience
smiling with pleasure and appreciation. The band just get better and better and
although they had less than an hour to
prepare for this performance, and were due to headline the Bridge Inn later on
the same evening, it was nonetheless a particularly impressive display of cool
as well as musical
virtuosity and we are indebted to them - again.

As Molly Brown raced back to the Bridge,

Wheatbread Johnson conducts the band as the audience warmly applaud a storming
performance - click to enlarge

Wheatbread Johnson
stepped on stage and with a blast from his battered, sunburst "Strat", which
pinned the ears back
of even those at the back of the hall, blasted into a storming display of
guitar gymnastics which had those of us with a weakness for air guitar once
again
scrabbling for some "air" notes. This guy went form 0 to 100mph in an instant
and then stayed there for a solid hour of high decibel, high energy, full on r
'n b.

Marcus Malone on the Main Stage at this year's Festival - click to enlarge

The
Marcus Malone Band
came to the stage minus their keyboard player left behind in Birmingham (you
can't have everything) but had the audience on their feet dancing in the aisles
and shouting for more ...and more. Marcus gave it to them. Stage craft,
charisma and musicanship were all on open display to be enjoyed and savoured
and that we did. In fact Marcus and his men played so long that they damned
nearly missed the transport back to their hotel. But they were great. Oh yeah,
they made it back OK!

Saturday Night 15th May 2004

I did tell you that you would kick yourself if you didn't get a ticket for
Watermelon Slim and was I right? In spades I was right, which makes a nice
change...For twelve quid, just four smackeroonies per band (how cheap is that
for goodness sake?) you could have had a ball. We did.

Watermelon Slim and his National - click to ENLARGE

After a brilliant day of warm sunshine the sound engineers changed shift and
sound checks began for the evening session. The Foyer of the Riverside Music
Room was packed by 8.00pm as ticket holders waited for doors to open. 10
minutes late (a few sound issues had to be ironed out) and
Watermelon Slim
shuffled on to the stage and picked up his
battered old left-handed National
Steel guitar (picture upper right) for what would turn out to be a spell binding
performance, a

Slim being interviewd by Roy Macmillan of Manx radio - click to enlarge

Festival highlight that we will remember for a long time to come and so much of
it was live on Manx Radio and recorded by them for posterity which was just so
lucky - the more we plan, the luckier we get.
This man, Watermelon Slim, lives the blues - it is etched into every line on
his face and oozes from every pore of his wiry frame and he shared with us
lucky few on Saturday night some of the experiences and emotional journeys that
he has travelled throughout his eventful life. Vietnam Veteran, anti-war
campaigner, multi-lingual, highly educated and family man that he is, he had a
lot to say to us and we listened and applauded.

Guy Davis & Watermelon Slim "one of those rare
moments of symbiosis, of synchronicity between two men on the top of their form
who by sheer good fortune happened to be in the same place at the same time"
Main Stage - 2004

Guy Davis followed Slim but wouldn't let him go and asked him to stay on with
his harmonica. We were then treated to a set of powerful Blues that satisfied
even this blues hungry audience who just couldn't let either Guy or Slim give
way to
Smokestack - not for a while anyway. It was just one of those rare
moments of symbiosis, of synchronicity between two men on the top of their form
who by sheer good fortune happened to be in the same place at the same time and
who had never met before and just clicked with one another from the first
moment. It was a moment to be savoured long in the memory and we were lucky as
music fans to bear witness.

Time eventually did what it always does and the hour came for Slim and Guy to
exit stage right, meet some fans, sign some CD's and enjoy a great set from
Smokestack who had the unenviable task of following them.

But boy oh boy do these boys know how to play. In Roger Ferris (Bass) and Ali
Van Ryne (Drums) you have a rhythm section of the very highest quality and Phil
Mills, guitar virtuoso, harp player and singer par excellence - and I defy you
to
find a more passionate performer than Phil - Smokestack are the musical
equivalent of E=mc˛ - the perfect equation or, perhaps, a force to be reckoned
with. They told me earlier in the day
that their favourite kind of gig is the Festival gig. Why? I asked. The answer
is simple; at Festivals you have a whole bunch of people who come together for
one reason - live, Blues right there in your face and these blokes love the
blues, they like jazz but they just love the blues. So, unenviable as it was to
follow Guy and Slim, Smokestack were more than
up for the task and the quality of their musicianship was both unmistakable and,
for the well-past-midnight crowd, hugely, satisfyingly enjoyable.

Many thanks to Trevor Burgess for the photography - really good, comprehensive
coverage. Thanks too to Roy Macmillan at
Manx Radio
for making the Live Broadcast from the Main Stage and
Festival Highlights Show
happen. Thanks, in fact, to everyone who worked on the Main Stage project this
year - and all volunteers every last one of them.